Seminar Paper: No Country For Old Men In No Country For Old Men there is an uncanny symmetry between the behaviors and decisions of the film’s lead characters. In some scenes, it almost feels as if one is watching the same thing multiple times. The symmetry between the characters and their actions gives way to a Freudian interpretation of the film; one that shows the struggle of the Ego to reconcile the desires of the Id and the Superego, and illustrates the dangers of allowing either-or to dominate the psyche. In No Country For Old Men the Id and Superego dominate the psyche of Chigurh and Bell, respectively. The film shows the dangers of allowing either to be too dominant through the character’s mishaps and dissatisfaction. Anton Chigurh’s
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The first time that Chigurh passes up an opportunity to kill someone is in the scene at Lewellyn’s trailer park. Despite having just seen Chigurh nearly kill someone over making small talk about the weather, here he makes the bewildering decision to spare a woman who doesn’t just offend him, but is downright confrontational, and later at the Regal Motor Hotel he spares the woman working at desk. This is perplexing. The woman would have been able to correlate the gunfire and corpses to Chigurh’s arrival, and from later in the movie, we know that Chigurh has major problems with being seen at the scene of the crime. Halfway through the movie, Wells describe Chigurh as man of principles. One of these principles could be that he doesn’t like to harm …show more content…
The coin toss is a coping mechanism that Chigurh’s Ego uses when the Superego invokes feelings of guilt. Chigurh views his work with a Machiavellian mentality. Anybody who stands in his way, or insults his work, he kills. To that extent he clearly thinks it’s okay to murder people. However beyond that the issue is not certain. The deputy, the men on the highway, the ‘managerials’, the cartel members, the man in the truck that Lewellyn jumps in, Carson Wells, and his employer are all a means to an end or the result of his work being offended. When Chigurh goes up to kill Carla Jean or the man at the gas station, his Ego is presented with a dilemma. The man in the gas station has done nothing wrong, he is defenseless and clearly scared. When Chigurh goes to kill Carla Jean, his Ego encounters a dilemma. With her, he encounters a contradiction in two of his principles, he must keep his word, but he mustn’t harm women. These are the only two people he intends to kill and doesn’t. He presents them both with the coin. For the Ego, the coin is used to clear its guilty conscious if it lands in the Id’s favor. Chigurh treats the coin as purely an act of fate, something that he has no say in. On the other hand, if the coin lands against the favor of the Id, the Ego can successfully suppress the Id and satisfy the Ego by attributing the result to fate. When Carla Jean denies Chigurh this luxury, he is visibly
The first time that Chigurh passes up an opportunity to kill someone is in the scene at Lewellyn’s trailer park. Despite having just seen Chigurh nearly kill someone over making small talk about the weather, here he makes the bewildering decision to spare a woman who doesn’t just offend him, but is downright confrontational, and later at the Regal Motor Hotel he spares the woman working at desk. This is perplexing. The woman would have been able to correlate the gunfire and corpses to Chigurh’s arrival, and from later in the movie, we know that Chigurh has major problems with being seen at the scene of the crime. Halfway through the movie, Wells describe Chigurh as man of principles. One of these principles could be that he doesn’t like to harm …show more content…
The coin toss is a coping mechanism that Chigurh’s Ego uses when the Superego invokes feelings of guilt. Chigurh views his work with a Machiavellian mentality. Anybody who stands in his way, or insults his work, he kills. To that extent he clearly thinks it’s okay to murder people. However beyond that the issue is not certain. The deputy, the men on the highway, the ‘managerials’, the cartel members, the man in the truck that Lewellyn jumps in, Carson Wells, and his employer are all a means to an end or the result of his work being offended. When Chigurh goes up to kill Carla Jean or the man at the gas station, his Ego is presented with a dilemma. The man in the gas station has done nothing wrong, he is defenseless and clearly scared. When Chigurh goes to kill Carla Jean, his Ego encounters a dilemma. With her, he encounters a contradiction in two of his principles, he must keep his word, but he mustn’t harm women. These are the only two people he intends to kill and doesn’t. He presents them both with the coin. For the Ego, the coin is used to clear its guilty conscious if it lands in the Id’s favor. Chigurh treats the coin as purely an act of fate, something that he has no say in. On the other hand, if the coin lands against the favor of the Id, the Ego can successfully suppress the Id and satisfy the Ego by attributing the result to fate. When Carla Jean denies Chigurh this luxury, he is visibly